The present invention relates to carriers for articles, such as tumblers, goblets and the like, which are used to pack the articles for shipping and to display them for sale. Such carriers do not fully enclose the articles so that the prospective purchaser may be attracted by their appearance and inspect them before purchase.
Typically, a manufacturer specializing in paper board and/or plastic sheet goods prepares a display carrier from paper or plastic, partially or completely assembles it and ships it in a flattened state to the manufacturer of articles. The articles manufacturer erects and assembles the carriers as necessary, inserts the articles into them and ships the goods to retailers. Carriers generally require some degree of assembly by the article manufacturer because they cannot be flattened or collapsed after full assembly. To reduce expense it is desirable to manufacture display carriers which may be fully assembled and then collapsed.
One such collapsible display carrier is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,884,353 to Forte. That X-shaped carton, although it may be assembled and then flattened, requires substantial handling for erection, since the sides must be "popped" into place. Other collapsible display carriers are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,155,450 and 4,212,391 to Schillinger. In these related disclosures, the carrier includes end-to-end divider walls having latch means for holding the divider walls in place. Once the carrier is erected, the latch means must be unlocked by hand to collapse the carrier. Yet another carrier is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,130,202 to Champlin, et al. While that carrier may be folded flat, it requires the insertion of a probe or finger through an access hole to lock or unlock it, to or from its fully assembled condition, respectively. The carriers disclosed by Champlin and Schillinger and are collapsed along fold lines joining the top and bottom walls to the side walls. That is, the collapsing is unsymmetrical since the glassware retainers inside the carriers must be pushed to one side or the other of the carrier for collapsing.